CAMPER back on the podium in Lisbon

CAMPER back on the podium in Lisbon
                           
9 June 2012
 
CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand has taken third place in the Lisbon in-port race in an exciting showdown on the Tagus River that at times promised much more for the team
                                                                
In almost perfect sailing conditions of a 15 to 18 knot south westerly breeze CAMPER had a clean downwind start behind Groupama but picked up a better line of breeze and managed to sneak in front as the fleet closed in on Lisbon’s iconic 25th of April Bridge.  
 
In an epic battle to the first mark the two boats exchanged the lead several times until an uncharacteristically sub-par gybe by CAMPER allowed Groupama to inch into the lead at the first mark rounding, a position they held for the rest of the race.
 
In a tightly compressed fleet CAMPER continued to fight hard for the rest of the race holding onto second  until the last leg where Puma benefited from choosing the favoured side of the mark gate to round and moved ahead of CAMPER relegating them to third.
 
The result is CAMPER’s sixth in-port race podium finish in eight races and delivers the team three valuable points.
 
CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson welcomed the return to the podium but rued some missed opportunities.
 
“Third is an OK result and that’s all it is. We needed better and we had opportunities for that to be a lot better result than third.
 
“The reality is though if you look at what’s going on with some of the other top four teams, everyone’s having their ups and downs – it’s an interesting mix.. Today we wanted more but it could have been a whole lot worse as we’ve seen.
 
“It was exiting  racing out there today. Often these races are nothing but a pressure cooker and to be honest some of us have not been too keen on the racetracks; but this was just great. This was like Auckland, natural amphitheatre up and back, windward leewards – very enjoyable sailing.
 
“Now we’re all really looking to the next leg starting tomorrow. It should be a bit of everything – the Azores High is right over the rounding mark which will give us plenty of light stuff and then hopefully a big low pressure system for fast heavy weather run back to Lorient.”
 
Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race a 1940 nautical mile battle from Lisbon, Portugal to Lorient, France gets underway tomorrow at 1300 local time/midnight NZT.
 
Pictures of CAMPER, video footage and audio files  are available upon request. Further information and race updates will be available on our blog   and on our Facebook page

ENDS

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